Over the years, attempts have been made to control model trains and railroads with various levels of success. In many cases the system allows for only a few operations to be controlled such as the original AC trains having forward, reverse and stop for an individual train on a single track. In some cases the use of digital circuitry has been incorporated to control the relative states of these circuits and generate pulses to initiate states of operation.
The advent of DC motors made controlling the train easier and less cumbersome. However, the railroader continues to seek greater control over the operation of every aspect of the train and railroad. As DC motors have become more prevalent in the model train industry the sophistication of controllers for the locomotives has increased allowing for multiple trains of various manufactures to occupy the same or shared tracks. This has also given way to an increased desire to make the operation of the train to function as similar as possible to an actual locomotive engine wether it steam, coal or electric in nature.
When a model train operator currently uses a DC locomotive he needs a specific power pack or controller functioning within a certain range of operation specific to a DC locomotive. Unfortunately, if the operator has multiple trains by various manufacturers he is placed in a unenviable position of choosing which trains he can run with which power source on which tracks. This is very limiting and possibly even dangerous to either the train or the power pack. Further, solutions provided to railroaders have been complex in operation, not adaptable to multiple train requirements or required external computer interfaces to operate. The modern railroader still likes the simplicity of operation and yet wants the more sophisticated operation.